Shay peels off and takes a seat in front of a chess board, where he’ll have a line of sight to the bench where we’re meeting.
I’m scrolling on my phone but watching the area behind my sunglasses. My mind drifts to the text Sam sent.I miss you.Those three little words flooded my body with heat, defrosting something that has been frozen for a long, long time. My heart. It was painful, like a limb thawing after frostbite.
Maybe I’m not as broken as I thought. I swore I’d never let anyone tear my heart open like that again. I’d gone crazy. Spent the next two years violently punishing myself and anyone else that got in my way. Eventually I’d been able to bury the memory and gone numb.
I spot Dunn coming my way, hands shoved in his slacks pockets, wearing a rain jacket and baseball hat. No doubt he’s packing, too. He doesn’t bother to shake my hand, just lowers himself down on the bench and glances at me. Puffy dark half-moons sit under his eyes, graying whiskers cover his jaw like he just hasn’t bothered to shave in a few days. He stinks of whiskey.
“Havin’ trouble sleepin’, Agent?”
His glare is sharp and full of venom. “None of your fucking business. What do you want? I don’t have all night.”
I chuckle, but it doesn’t hold a bit of humor. “Michael Barone. He’s point for organ traffickin’ for the Amato Family. I need to get rid of him without startin’ a mob war.”
His eyes narrow. “What exactly are you asking me to do?”
“I need you to leak a confidential tip or internal case note in channels the Italians monitor. Somethin’ that points to Michael Barone as a rat.”
“Jesus Christ.” Dunn shakes his head and blows out a breath. “This is the last time. You hear me? The Bureau’s sniffing around my expense reports. One wrong move…”
“Then don’t make a wrong move. I’m not asking you to bleedin’ kill the guy, for fuck’s sake. I just need somethin’ to make Barone look like he’s cozyin’ up to you lads.”
Dunn’s jaw tightens. He glances around. “If anyone connects me, my career’s gone, my pension’s gone. Mykidsare gone. You don’t know what you’re asking me to lose.”
My patience is wearing thin and it comes across in my deadly low tone. “You lost the moment we bailed you out of the fifty-grand mess you got in with the Cobras. You’re only breathin’ because of us.”
He stares out across the park for a long moment. Then he lets out a ragged laugh that sounds like surrender. “Christ. Fine. I know an agent owned by Amato. I’ll make it happen. Give me two days and he’ll be burned.”
I stand and clap Dunn on the shoulder, not in comfort but ownership. Because we do own this motherfucker and he knows it. “Two days. He’s a bad guy, Agent. Fuckin’ organ traffickin’. I’m doing you boys a favor.”
Chapter 41
Samantha
I’d locked myself in the bathroom, panicked, screamed and cried into a towel. Now my eyes are swollen and I’m just numb.
“Mama?” Rona’s tiny fist knocks on the door.
“Be right out, sweetie.” My voice is lifeless. I stare at myself in the mirror, and feel like I’m looking at a stranger. I’ve stopped shaking. I’ve stopped feeling. I wish I could stop breathing, but I have to get through this. I have to keep it together for Rona’s sake. This isn’t over. Even though Michael thinks he’s won, there will come another day when I’ll escape with Rona again. Whether it be a week from now or a year. I just have to survive one day at a time until then.
The letter was from Michael. He’s here. He explained how his men put underwater explosives on the hull of The Lucky Sinner. And if I don’t come out with Rona in one hour, he will blow it up. Not just with us on it, but the sixty or so people blissfully unaware their lives are in danger.
I can’t live with that. Maybe he’s even bluffing, but I can’t take that chance. So, I open the bathroom door. The sight of Rona happily jumping on the bed, singing almost breaks me. She has no idea what’s coming and won’t understand why I’ve brought her back to the prison we escaped. Who’s going to watch her? Is Celia still alive? I pray that she is.
I sit down on the bed and pull her into my arms. She stills, sensing something is wrong. A sob breaks from my chest. I choke another down and pull her back so I can look into her eyes. They’re wide with fear.
“I’m so sorry, my sweet girl.” I stroke her hair. “We have to go back to New York with Michael.” Michael never spent time with her, so she doesn’t know him as Daddy, just as the man who’s house we lived in. “Just for a little while. I won’t see you as much, but I promise it won’t be forever. Do you understand?”
Her bottom lip pushes out in a pout. “With Cece?”
I force a smile. “Hopefully.” My chest cracks open. “Now, let’s get ready to go.” I give her one more long hug, taking in her scent, her warm little body. Then I pack a bag.
I pick up Rona’s coloring book and crayons and get a flash of Rona on Killian’s lap coloring a unicorn together. He’s telling her she doesn’t have to stay in the lines, she can color wherever she wants on the page and she’s giggling. I fall to my knees.
That’s the man she deserves as her father. The man I deserve. The man I… my God. My eyes blur as the realization of how I’ve fallen so hard for Killian and the pain of losing him sears through me like a hot knife.
The alarm on my phone goes off. Ten minutes. Fuck. I don’t have time to fall apart.
I quickly push aside my heartbreak and shove a few more things into the bag. Then I set it by the door, steel myself and open the door.
